Why children with Send from low-income homes face ‘double disadvantage’

Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (Send) who are also from poorer homes face double the disadvantage, a charity has warned.

Social mobility charity Sutton Trust said disadvantaged children with Send are being failed by a system “beset with inconsistency and mind-boggling bureaucracy”.

A new poll found that children from lower-income backgrounds are more likely to have Send, but less likely than their more affluent peers to secure support through an education, health and care plan (EHCP).

Only 26 per cent of children qualify for free school meals, but those who qualify for free school meals account for 44 per cent of those with EHCPs, and 39 per cent of those receiving Send support without an EHCP, the polling found.

Children with Send who received free school meals face worse outcomes than their more affluent peers with Send.

In 2023-24, only 7.5 per cent of pupils with an EHCP receiving free school meals received a grade 4 or higher in their GCSE English and maths, compared with 17 per cent of those with an EHCP from better off families.

A total of 4,008 parents were polled, 1,273 of whom had a child with Send.

Sutton Trust chief executive Nick Harrison said it is unacceptable a child’s background can dictate whether they get the help they need to thrive at school.

“Getting the right support for a child shouldn’t be about a parent’s ability to pay. We need urgent action to make the system work better for everyone,” he added.

EHCPs are legal documents setting out support required for young people with Send. The polling, which was carried out by Public First, found more than two in three (68 per cent) of middle-class parents spent money on an EHCP application, compared with just 28 per cent of working-class parents.

At the extreme end, 11 per cent of middle-class parents spent more than £5,000 on their application.

Additionally, two in five (41 per cent) of middle-class parents reported securing a special school place for their child, while just one in four (25 per cent) of low-income parents secured a special school pace.

Margaret Mulholland, Send and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said the divide in ability to pay to access support means “we effectively have a two-tier system”.

More affluent families are also more likely to successfully use the tribunal system to get an EHCP; 22 per cent of more affluent parents did this successfully compared with 15 per cent of lower-income parents.

Send tribunals allow families to appeal if they are unhappy with the decision made about their child’s EHCP. Parents are very likely to win: in 2023-24, 99 per cent of the cases decided were in favour of the appellant.

Charlotte O’Regan, senior schools manager at the Sutton Trust, said parents who pay to access better support are a “symptom of this broken system”, rather than the cause of it.

“With horrendous waiting times across England and many requests for support being declined, it’s only natural that parents with sufficient means would go to a private service to help their children,” she added.

“The system shouldn’t force parents to pay to get the support their children need.”

The report also found middle-class parents were more likely to be happy with the support their child with Send was receiving than working-class parents.

Both Ms Mulholland and Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT (National Association of Head Teachers), said funding shortages for Send have left schools struggling to afford the support needed.

The government is expected to publish its plans to reform the Send system in a schools White Paper in the coming months.

The Sutton Trust is calling for the process of getting support to be simplified to make it more equal for families, and for the government to recognise and act on the relationship between child poverty and Send.

National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede said the upcoming White Paper must bring “radical change” underpinned with significant investment.

Minister for school standards Georgia Gould said: “This report highlights the stark inequalities and poor outcomes facing Send families, under the system this government inherited.

“We’re committed to cementing a system that delivers for all families and not just the lucky few, which is why we’re engaging with children and parents from a range of backgrounds as we develop plans to ensure all children get the outcomes and life chances they deserve.

“This work is already under way, including through improved training for teachers, £740 million to help create more specialist school places and earlier intervention for speech and language needs – reassuring parents that support will be available as routine at the earliest stage.”